It is a scientific fact that our bodies, as we grow older, mature and change naturally. Within the aging eye, these changes often develop into conditions that impact the quality of your vision, related to clouding or infection or halo vision, we often need eyeglasses which works like a microscope. But if you are experiencing age related visual problems, with successful opthalmic treatment, it may be possible to have clearer, brighter and sharper vision than you have had for a long, long time. As the crystalline lens ages, it becomes harder and less flexible, and less able to change shape for near vision or accommodation. This process becomes clinically apparent at about age forty and continues until eye accommodation is lost, typically by age 65. Loss of accommodation of the lens is a normal aging process, known as presbyopia. Stronger reading glasses are necessary to compensate for the loss of ability to focus up close.

In ophthalmology, a cataract is a change in the clarity, or a clouding of the lens in your eye. The crystalline lens, which is made mostly of protein and water, can become clouded enough to prevent light and images from reaching the retina. A cataract can be the reason sharp images become blurred and seeing things at night becomes more difficult. More than half of all Americans age sixty five and older have a cataract and cataracts are the leading cause of treatable blindness.

Cataract surgery using an opthalmic microscope is an outpatient procedure that will only take a few hours. The eyes may be treated with eye drops and anesthetic to minimize any discomfort during the operation. Giving cataract patients their best chance to live free of glasses, is a breakthrough in vision surgery. Throughout this routine opthalmic operation, a small incision is made in the eye. The surgeon will use a tiny instrument about the size of a pen tip, to remove your clouded lens with the aid of an opthalmic microscope. This can be done with either an aqua laser device, which uses gentle pulses of fluid to wash away your cloudy lens, or an ophthalmic ultrasonic instrument that breaks up and gently removes your cloudy lens called the phacoemulsification. Once this is accomplished, the surgeon, aided by an opthalmic microscope, will insert an artificial intraocular lens into your eye. After the opthalmic surgical procedure, patient will be given a short time to rest. Then, the very same day, patient can go home. Within the next twenty four hours, the doctor will probably want to see the patient for an evaluation. Drops will be prescribed to guard against infection and to help the patient’s eyes heal.

For a few days, the patient may need to wear a clear shield, especially at night, to prevent you from rubbing your eye. A number of attempts have been made to design a functional bifocal or multifocal or defractive intraocular lens. Unfortunately, the multifocal and defractive properties of these lenses produce significant visual aberrations and the technology has not become popular with patients and cataract surgeons. But with multifocal or defractive lens designs, crystalens offers a whole new dimension in vision restoration after cataract extraction. At the heart of the system is a unique intraocular accommodative lens design called crystalens. The crystalens reacts to the eyes natural accommodative response by providing a single point of focus that moves more anterior for intermediate and near vision, and posterior for distance vision. The patient perceives a true sense of visual accommodation throughout a full range of vision.